A number of large scale industrial manufacturing processes consume significant volumes of empty packaging materials. These packaging materials are generally filled with a processed commodity or product. Such production lines can be fed with empty stock packaging materials such as box blanks or empty pre-made bags. For a number of manufacturing production lines, such as for example, those associated with producing packaged milk powder, an empty bag is generally manually removed from a stack of empty bags stored on a pallet. In the case of milk powder packaging lines for example, comparatively large capacity 25 or 50 kilo bags are packed into stacks onto a pallet.
Due to the geometry of the bags employed, a number of variable bag orientations need to be used to efficiently stack the highest possible number of bags onto a pallet. This variation in bags stack orientation normally requires a human operator to identify and select a particular bag for depalletisation, while also ensuring that the overall height of the stacks on the pallet remain consistent and the load on the pallet remains stable.
However, the use of manual labour of the depalletising of bags does involve some drawbacks and disadvantages.
Manual labour represents a direct cost in the manufacturing process involved, and also requires operator training and operator safety procedures to be implemented and followed. Operator error or negligence may also cause manufacturing losses and potentially damage to plant or equipment.
However, the use of manual labour of the depalletising of bags does involve some drawbacks and disadvantages.
Manual labour represents a direct cost in the manufacturing process involved, and also requires operator training and operator safety procedures to be implemented and followed. Operator error or negligence may also cause manufacturing losses and potentially damage to plant or equipment.
There are many systems used in manufacturing that determine the orientations of objects or articles in order to ensure that the manoeuvring, machining or any other action to be taken on the object is accurate and efficient. U.S. Pat. No. 6,665,588 describes a work-piece removal system used to accurately remove car parts or other items in an assembly line. A laser or other range finding device is used to scan each object in the line and determine its orientation. This information is then analysed in order to direct a robotic arm to remove the work-piece. While this system is useful in ensuring accurate removal of work-pieces in a line it cannot determine the orientations and positions of multiple objects simultaneously. Also this system cannot compensate for a plurality of objects distributed unevenly or in many orientations and/or configurations.
It would be preferable to have an alternative system for the deployment of empty packaging materials or any other articles within a manufacturing process. In particular, it would be preferable to have an automated system, method or apparatus for extracting a bag, package or other object stored on a pallet or other support structure.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
It is acknowledged that the term ‘comprise’ may, under varying jurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusive meaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwise noted, the term ‘comprise’ shall have an inclusive meaning—i.e. that it will be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components it directly references, but also other non-specified components or elements. This rationale will also be used when the term ‘comprised’ or ‘comprising’ is used in relation to one or more steps in a method or process.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.